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Revision: 1.27
Committed: Wed Jul 18 15:39:08 2007 UTC (16 years, 11 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.26: +1 -1 lines
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# User Rev Content
1 root 1.1 =head1 NAME
2    
3 root 1.2 AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4    
5 root 1.14 Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
6 root 1.1
7     =head1 SYNOPSIS
8    
9 root 1.7 use AnyEvent;
10 root 1.2
11 root 1.14 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 root 1.2 ...
13     });
14 root 1.5
15     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 root 1.2 ...
17     });
18    
19 root 1.14 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged
20     $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 root 1.5 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22    
23 root 1.1 =head1 DESCRIPTION
24    
25 root 1.2 L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26 root 1.13 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27 root 1.2 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28     peacefully at any one time).
29    
30     The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event
31     module.
32    
33     On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently
34     loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is
35     loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is
36     used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the
37     order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be
38 root 1.14 used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl
39     event loop, which is also not very efficient.
40    
41     Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42     an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43     that model the default. For example:
44    
45     use Tk;
46     use AnyEvent;
47    
48     # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49    
50     The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51     C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52     explicitly.
53    
54     =head1 WATCHERS
55    
56     AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57     stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58     the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
59    
60     These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61     creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke
62     the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by
63     setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all
64     references to it).
65    
66     All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67    
68     =head2 IO WATCHERS
69    
70     You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with
71     the following mandatory arguments:
72    
73     C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for
74     events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates
75     a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback
76     to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77    
78     Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on
79     a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80     Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81    
82     Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
83     filehandle exists, too.
84    
85     Example:
86    
87     # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
88     my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90     warn "read: $input\n";
91     undef $w;
92     });
93    
94 root 1.19 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 root 1.14
96 root 1.19 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97 root 1.14 method with the following mandatory arguments:
98    
99     C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer
100     activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke.
101    
102     The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
103     timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
104     and Glib).
105    
106     Example:
107    
108     # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
109     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110     warn "timeout\n";
111     });
112    
113     # to cancel the timer:
114     undef $w
115    
116     =head2 CONDITION WATCHERS
117    
118     Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
119     method without any arguments.
120    
121     A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<<
122     ->broadcast >> method has been called.
123    
124     The watcher has only two methods:
125 root 1.2
126 root 1.1 =over 4
127    
128 root 1.14 =item $cv->wait
129    
130     Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
131     called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
132    
133     Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so
134     if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but
135     let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136     by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137     supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138     block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139    
140     You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
141     immediately.
142    
143     =item $cv->broadcast
144    
145     Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
146     calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody
147     is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148    
149     Example:
150    
151     # wait till the result is ready
152     my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153    
154     # do something such as adding a timer
155     # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
156     # when the "result" is ready.
157    
158     $result_ready->wait;
159    
160     =back
161    
162 root 1.19 =head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163    
164     You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165 root 1.20 I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
166 root 1.22 together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
167 root 1.20 might not be asynchronous.
168 root 1.19
169     These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
170     directly will likely not work correctly.
171    
172     Example: exit on SIGINT
173    
174     my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175    
176 root 1.20 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177    
178     You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
179     C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by
180     installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181    
182     Example: wait for pid 1333
183    
184     my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
185    
186 root 1.16 =head1 GLOBALS
187    
188     =over 4
189    
190     =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191    
192     Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
193     contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
194     Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
195     C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
196     AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
197    
198     The known classes so far are:
199    
200     AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, best choise.
201     AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also best choice :)
202     AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
203     AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
204     AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
205    
206 root 1.19 =item AnyEvent::detect
207    
208     Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if
209     necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have
210     created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime.
211    
212 root 1.16 =back
213    
214 root 1.14 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
215    
216     As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
217     freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
218    
219     Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
220     decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
221     by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
222     to load the event module first.
223    
224     =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
225    
226     There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
227     dictate which event model to use.
228    
229     If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
230     do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose.
231    
232     If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2
233     programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load
234     it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early
235     as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they
236     are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as
237     it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the
238     correct one yourself.
239    
240     You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
241     loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
242     generally better.
243    
244 root 1.1 =cut
245    
246     package AnyEvent;
247    
248 root 1.2 no warnings;
249 root 1.19 use strict;
250 root 1.24
251 root 1.1 use Carp;
252    
253 root 1.27 our $VERSION = '2.54';
254 root 1.2 our $MODEL;
255 root 1.1
256 root 1.2 our $AUTOLOAD;
257     our @ISA;
258 root 1.1
259 root 1.7 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
260    
261 root 1.8 our @REGISTRY;
262    
263 root 1.1 my @models = (
264 root 1.18 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
265     [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
266     [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
267     [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
268     [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
269 root 1.1 );
270    
271 root 1.19 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
272 root 1.3
273 root 1.19 sub detect() {
274     unless ($MODEL) {
275     no strict 'refs';
276 root 1.1
277 root 1.2 # check for already loaded models
278 root 1.8 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
279     my ($package, $model) = @$_;
280 root 1.7 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
281 root 1.8 if (eval "require $model") {
282     $MODEL = $model;
283     warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
284     last;
285     }
286 root 1.2 }
287 root 1.1 }
288    
289 root 1.2 unless ($MODEL) {
290     # try to load a model
291    
292 root 1.8 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
293     my ($package, $model) = @$_;
294 root 1.21 if (eval "require $package"
295     and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
296     and eval "require $model") {
297 root 1.8 $MODEL = $model;
298     warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
299     last;
300     }
301 root 1.2 }
302    
303     $MODEL
304 root 1.19 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
305 root 1.1 }
306 root 1.19
307     unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
308     push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
309 root 1.1 }
310    
311 root 1.19 $MODEL
312     }
313    
314     sub AUTOLOAD {
315     (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
316    
317     $method{$func}
318     or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
319    
320     detect unless $MODEL;
321 root 1.2
322     my $class = shift;
323 root 1.18 $class->$func (@_);
324 root 1.1 }
325    
326 root 1.19 package AnyEvent::Base;
327    
328 root 1.20 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
329    
330     sub condvar {
331     bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
332     }
333    
334     sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
335     ${$_[0]}++;
336     }
337    
338     sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
339     AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
340     }
341    
342     # default implementation for ->signal
343 root 1.19
344     our %SIG_CB;
345    
346     sub signal {
347     my (undef, %arg) = @_;
348    
349     my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
350     or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
351    
352     $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
353     $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
354 root 1.20 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
355 root 1.19 };
356    
357 root 1.20 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
358 root 1.19 }
359    
360     sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
361     my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
362    
363     delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
364    
365     $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
366     }
367    
368 root 1.20 # default implementation for ->child
369    
370     our %PID_CB;
371     our $CHLD_W;
372     our $PID_IDLE;
373     our $WNOHANG;
374    
375     sub _child_wait {
376     while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
377     $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} };
378     }
379    
380     undef $PID_IDLE;
381     }
382    
383     sub child {
384     my (undef, %arg) = @_;
385    
386     my $pid = uc $arg{pid}
387     or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
388    
389     $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
390    
391     unless ($WNOHANG) {
392     $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
393     }
394    
395 root 1.23 unless ($CHLD_W) {
396     $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
397     # child could be a zombie already
398     $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
399     }
400 root 1.20
401     bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
402     }
403    
404     sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
405     my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
406    
407     delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
408     delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
409    
410     undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
411     }
412    
413 root 1.8 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
414    
415     If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
416     supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
417 root 1.11 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
418 root 1.8 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
419     C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
420     AnyEvent.
421    
422     Example:
423    
424     push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
425    
426 root 1.12 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
427     package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
428     AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
429     first check for the presence of urxvt.
430    
431 root 1.19 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
432 root 1.12 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
433     (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
434     AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
435 root 1.8
436 root 1.12 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
437     uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
438 root 1.8 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
439     I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
440     I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
441    
442 root 1.12 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
443     condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
444     C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
445 root 1.25 not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
446 root 1.12
447 root 1.7 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
448    
449     The following environment variables are used by this module:
450    
451     C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
452     model gets used.
453    
454 root 1.2 =head1 EXAMPLE
455    
456     The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
457     to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
458     when the user enters quit:
459    
460     use AnyEvent;
461    
462     my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
463    
464     my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
465     warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
466     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
467     warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
468     $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
469     });
470    
471     my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
472    
473     sub new_timer {
474     $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
475     warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
476     &new_timer; # and restart the time
477     });
478     }
479    
480     new_timer; # create first timer
481    
482     $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
483    
484 root 1.5 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
485    
486     Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
487     API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
488    
489     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
490    
491     my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
492     $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
493     my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
494    
495     The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
496     given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
497    
498     sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
499    
500     And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
501     L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
502    
503     More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
504     (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
505    
506     my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
507    
508     It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
509     of the request:
510    
511     $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
512    
513     It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
514    
515     socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
516     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
517     connect $txn->{fh}, ...
518     and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
519     and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
520     and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
521    
522 root 1.6 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
523 root 1.5 or the connection succeeds:
524    
525     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
526    
527     And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
528     called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
529     writing.
530    
531     The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
532     request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
533     data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
534     this example:
535    
536     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
537     syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
538     or die "connection or write error";
539     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
540    
541     Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
542     result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
543    
544     sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
545    
546     if (end-of-file or data complete) {
547     $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
548     $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
549 root 1.6 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
550 root 1.5 }
551    
552     The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
553     request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
554     data:
555    
556     $txn->{finished}->wait;
557 root 1.6 return $txn->{result};
558 root 1.5
559     The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
560     that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
561     wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
562     and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
563     problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
564     random callback.
565    
566     All of this enables the following usage styles:
567    
568     1. Blocking:
569    
570     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
571    
572     2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
573    
574     my @datas = map $_->result,
575     map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
576     @urls;
577    
578     Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
579     anything about events.
580    
581     3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
582    
583     use Event;
584    
585     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
586     my $txn = shift;
587     my $data = $txn->result;
588     ...
589     });
590    
591     Event::loop;
592    
593     3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
594    
595     use AnyEvent;
596    
597     my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
598    
599     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
600     ...
601     $quit->broadcast;
602     });
603    
604     $quit->wait;
605    
606 root 1.2 =head1 SEE ALSO
607    
608 root 1.5 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
609    
610     Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
611    
612     Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
613 root 1.2
614     =head1
615    
616     =cut
617    
618     1
619 root 1.1